


can you really call it pain?

by aberfaeth



Category: Hinatazaka46 (Band)
Genre: Aka the best trope, F/F, Mutual Pining, and im the maid of honor, im a baby ohisama so forgive me, im in love with my bestfriend but fuck shes getting married, it is with great pleasure that i can finally add the tag:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25926667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aberfaeth/pseuds/aberfaeth
Summary: there's a male fish in the deepest depth of the ocean that bites unto the female, latches on to her for survival and for mating, indefinitely, like a sperm-producing parasite. that fish would look at shiho's relationship with takumi and say, "that's fucked up."or: kumi trying to stop her friends from kidnapping shiho's fiancé
Relationships: Katou Shiho/Sasaki Kumi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. prenuptial

**Author's Note:**

> this is for @hyogozakas on twt so blame it all on her

it rains for three days straight.

kumi supposes it's the heavens' way of emphasizing with her trying to cope with the news.

_ i'm happy for_ _you,_ she told shiho. it's not exactly a lie. and maybe subconsciously, kumi knew this day would come. she just didn't think it'd come so soon. 

"so...?" she hears a voice over the phone, "would you do it?"

"of course. it'll be an honor."

"yay! thank you so much. i guess that's why they call it maid of honor, huh."

"this is hardly the time to be funny, shiho. you're getting married. are you sure you're ready?"

"i don't know, but," she pauses, "but i love him."

_i know._

there's a male fish in the deepest depth of the ocean that bites unto the female, latches on to her for survival and for mating, indefinitely, like a sperm-producing parasite.

that fish would look at shiho's relationship with takumi and say, _"that's fucked up."_

kumi really doesn't know what she saw in him. she's been with shiho long enough to name more than a dozen men her best friend has dated and she can definitively say that takumi is not the best-looking one by a large margin. for the first month of them dating, he was seeing several other women, shiho chucked it up to his spontaneous side as if infidelity was a personality trait and even now, newly engaged and all, he refuses to pick her up when they go out on a date because her apartment is "out of his way".

well, shiho is out of his league, but here we fucking are.

he also does this thing called never-admitting-you're-wrong, that drives shiho insane and when all is said and done, kumi is always the one left picking up the pieces.

(she will say that for a while, kumi reveled in it—the thought of shiho needing her after every fight—before realising that there's only so much screaming and crying shiho could handle. it was selfish, but it's nice to feel needed, until you're not.)

"hey, kumi?"

"yeah?" kumi replies as she snuggles closer to the dry side of her pillow, her phone resting on the dry side of her cheek.

"i really appreciate you going to the wedding. i know you're not biggest fan of takumi but i really want you there."

"i'm your best friend, silly. there's no way in hell i won't be there."

/

the next time they see each other, it's 40 degrees out, shiho is donning a turtleneck in the middle of the excruciating summer heat and kumi immediately knows what it means. she usually takes her time to admire shiho's face. her bangs have reached her eyes that she has to get them out of the way every five seconds. she's wearing a shade of lipstick that she doesn't really like but takumi said he prefers (what kind of man has a "preferred lipstick shade" for her girlfriend?). 

"he still got you wearing that thing? didn't you say you hate that color?" kumi scoffs, "that brand tests on animals, katoshi!"

"i know, but," she says, "at the end of the day, he's the one who gets to taste it so,"

"you're so gross." kumi says, trying to get the picture of shiho getting kissed by that man-child she now calls her fiancé out of her head. her attention goes back to shiho's turtleneck. 

"someone had an eventful evening," kumi spats, "he must be so impressive if he got you to take his last name."

shiho had the decency to blush, lightly nudging kumi's shoulder in embarrassment, "shut up."

they sit in the corner of the cafe where the air conditioner hits their table directly, kumi assumes shiho needs all the ventilation she can get. even without the wool on her torso, she tends to run hot.

"i think we should put a pin in buying the wedding dress." shiho says after the clerk leaves their drinks on the table and walks away, "unless they sell wedding scarfs, i can't have atelier employees looking at my neck in the fitting room and making up all kinds of stories in their heads."

kumi can't enjoy the thought of shiho in a wedding dress when she's bombarded with the thought of shiho with hickeys she's not responsible for. "you can say your fiancé put them there,"

"that's too much information already."

"it's probably not that bad."

"oh, please," shiho tugs the neckline of her top down and kumi sees the skin of her neck littered with purple marks that ends where her jaw begins and she wonders how shiho looked in the process of getting them. shiho's face start to turn bright red when kumi reaches a hand out to touch one. 

"this one looks like it hurt," she says, pulling her hand away and keeping it busy by grabbing her iced coffee and start drinking it.

"it didn't," shiho breathes out, evading her eyes before pulling the sleeve up to hide it again. "i wish it did, then at least i'd feel something."

kumi almost chokes on her coffee, "what?"

"i can't even talk about it, it's so embarrassing."

"for you and me, both."

kumi is more than happy to drop the topic of shiho's sex life right there. it's one thing to gossip with your best friend about her parade of boyfriends and their... performances, it's another if you're in love with her.

but it just keeps getting brought up.

"takumi's picking me up for the first time ever," shiho exclaims, "we're going to the city hall to fill out some paperwork."

"wow, this is really happening... you're getting married." kumi mumbles, "you're getting married."

"i already heard the you're-not-ready speech a hundred times. i thought you're happy for me?"

_i'm trying to be,_ " i am, i am," kumi sighs, "i just feel like you could do better, you know?"

shiho just kind of collapses in her chair and deflates, "yeah," she sighs, "okay, fine, i'm telling you about it."

"about what?"

"you have to promise me you're not gonna tell anyone else, okay?"

"i promise," and kumi anticipates, hoping for something like a signal, an admission of reluctance about the wedding, or an outside force that required them to get married, because another " _because i love him_ ," from shiho hits kumi's ears so wrong that she's jealous of van gogh. 

"okay, here's the thing…"

/

it's a bad idea.

as the eldest in the room, she knows she should tell them it's bad idea. a fake kidnapping for shiho's bachelorette party is a non-starter. she already has enough topics to talk to a therapist about, kumi can't be the reason "being kidnapped by my friends" is going to be one of them.

"we are not kidnapping katoshi, okay? give me something else."

"no one said anything about any kidnapping," kyoko replies, "i just said put a bag over her head and stuff her in the trunk of your car on the way to the venue!"

"that's kidnapping 101, do you not hear yourself?" she raged, "come on, people, give me ideas!"

"what if—"

"everyone except kyoko, give me ideas."

"are we really brainstorming for her bachelorette party right now? we should be planning how to hijack the wedding." mirei chimes in.

"that's good but i'm surprised you know what hijack means," manafi says before beelining for kumi, "we thought you'd be the first one to be against this."

she invited her friends to her apartment to plan for shiho's bachelorette party.

(god, it's like she hates herself.)

there's a sliver of hope in the back of her mind that this wedding might not happen, but none of the potential reasons include shiho loving her back, so really, what's the point of her driving a wedge against this whole affair? in fact, she's already made a very detailed and thorough powerpoint presentation entitled, Why You Shouldn't Marry Him, but shiho is very adamant about tying the knot. aside from the groom being an asshole to waitstaff, and that he's made her bestfriend cry six times in the week leading up to their engagement, he's just straight up a terrible human being. 

kumi could almost hear shiho's  _but i love him_ from here. 

"what do you mean? shiho's getting married, we should support her." kumi says as she feigns confusion. their mutual friends might have known of her... attraction to shiho despite years of trying to suppress it, because when you're hit with the engagement news of the love of your life at 2 am via phone call so you invite everyone (except shiho) for a night out—and seven tequila shots later, you're crying in their arms—they tend to ask questions.

manafi rolls her eyes, "first of all, you're in love with her. second, her fiancé is a moron."

kumi likes to pride herself with how much shit she can handle. she's practically planning the wedding what with all the cake testing, choosing the centerpiece, hiring a band, making a wedding playlist, even helping shiho write her vows but she knows at some point she's gotta call time of death on the martyr act.

(to be fair, that wedding playlist was created ten years ago, with shiho in mind and kumi in the opposite side of the altar. no one questions legality if you only daydream it.) 

"what if we kidnapped her fiancé instead?"

"kyoko, i swear to god,"

"look," yuka tells her, "you don't have to do this. all this planning and managing for a wedding that you don't even want to be at has got to be exhausting, even for you."

there's a framed photograph in her living room of shiho in a star wars convention. kumi was dressed as obi-wan kenobi that day, and shiho as darth vader. shiho wore that mask the entire day and no one knew who was underneath, but kumi did. every time she showed that picture to someone, they assume she just took a picture of a random cosplayer, or that she's obsessed with a fictional character, but kumi couldn't care less about darth vader. she just likes the metaphor of hiding something in plain sight for everyone to see, but it was shiho all along.

kumi sighs, "i'd rather be there and suffer than not be there all, because guess what, she's not gonna end the whole thing because i don't like it," she deflates , "because she loves him."

she hears a snicker from manafi saying, "wanna bet on it?" and she's quickly shushed by yuka. 

she loves her friends but really, what the hell do they know about falling in love. 

/

it's getting out of hand, which is funny because it's shiho's. the hands. shiho's hands are—

kumi can't even think straight, not that she ever did but there is an arm clutching tightly around her, and not that she's complaining, but her heart could take it down a notch a bit. 

shiho has always been touchy, especially when drunk, but not like this. the hand on her waist is making it very difficult to maneuver through the dimly lit dance floor that is covered in confetti and booze, the music is too loud that shiho has to whisper in her ear and kumi almost slips and takes them both down when she feels shiho's breath against her skin. in her defense, kumi would want to get batshit drunk too if she's going to be marrying someone with dumbbells for brains but shiho supposedly loves him, if kumi counts the eleven times she's screamed it in between shots. 

"you okay?" she asks, steadying the bride-to-be on the stool as she gestures to someone else for a glass of water, "it's only been twenty minutes and you're drunk already?"

"why are  _ you  _ not drunk?"

kumi barely remembers the last time that she got drunk but she knows there was sobbing and screaming and  _god, i love her so much_ , and she planned this party for a month; if shiho throws up in her face, it's going to be because of excessive drinking, not homophobia. "well, someone's gotta take you all home,"

shiho sighs and the stupid drunken smile on her faces disappears, "you're so reliable, kumi, and responsible, and intuitive, and," she hiccups, "such a rock and so kind and so good at cooking."

she's just babbling now and it's probably the liquor talking but kumi still blushes. thank god she paid extra for a light dimmer if it means shiho won't see the twinge of pink in her cheeks. she feels a finger jabbing on her chest repeatedly after every syllable, "you'd make such a good wife, kumi." 

"oh, i don't know—"

"you would, you would! you'd be the best wife anyone could ever ask for!" she hiccups again, "if i didn't have takumi, i'd marry you in a heartbeat."

_ maybe i should've let kyoko kidnap him. _

"that's just the tequila talking, where's that water i asked for—"

"no, no, no, i mean it," she drones on, but before kumi can feed her delusions, the head on her shoulder starts quaking, the grip on her waist get tighter, and there is a wet spot on her sleeve that was not there before, "i can't do this, kumi, i can't,"

she pulls shiho's face closer and she's crying,  _ oh no,_ she's crying, and kumi may seem like she has her shit together but she never knew what to do every time shiho shows up on her door, cheeks flushed and flooded you'd think it was raining outside, and it hurt to see (and that, she sees quite often since takumi), but there was nothing else she could do except wipe her tears away and hold her long enough to calm her down.

and so she does, tighter than ever before. 

"i can't do this, i really can't," shiho sobs, shaking her head, face cupped in the palm of kumi's hands, "i can't marry him."

"why?" kumi asks, and there it is again—the selfishness, the hope bubbling in the surface of her chest that she'd kept hidden underwater for so long, coming up for air at the slightest sign of survival.  _ because of me?  _ she wants to ask. and then there it went, as quickly as it came, and is replaced by guilt as she sees the look in shiho's eyes. she's afraid. 

"i'm scared i'm gonna be a terrible wife. i can't do anything, kumi. i'm not like you who's always on top of your shit, i eat microwavable meals everyday! i bought this shirt i'm wearing  _ today,_ you know why? because i haven't done laundry in two weeks! what kind of wife serves cup noodles and ready made meals to her family? what if takumi leaves me because i can't cook to save my life?"

_ right, of course. it was a silly thought, anyway. _

"shiho, listen to me," she says, smiling as she wipes the tears on shiho's face, "you make the best gyōza."

that earns a laugh, "that's not fair, you eat everything i cook."

"yeah, because they're good! and don't worry about the house chores. you'll get the hang of it in no time, plus, what kind of a deadbeat husband would takumi be if he doesn't help out?" kumi fixes her hair, tugging strays to the back of her ear and pats shiho on the head, "you'll be a great wife."

as shiho composes herself, says  _ thank you, you're such a good friend  _ with a kiss on the cheek, kumi feels heat spiking up to her eyes and she regrets appointing herself as the designated driver, because now she really needs a drink. 

and just like that, she's drowning again. 


	2. pre-prenuptial

it's always been just the two of them together, going out, having sleepovers, going to nerd conventions. and sure they have their friends, but their friends don't know just how clingy kumi is. they see her as this mom figure that acts as the proverbial angel on their shoulder telling them the right thing to do (without being condescending. kumi is good at that), making sure they don't drink too much, and driving them home, and helping them make big life decisions like getting a loan or buying a car or adopting a pet, and yeah, kumi does all those things for shiho, too. but it's... different. 

right?

/

shiho doesn't see kumi until suzuka.

on their third year of highschool, kumi accompanied shiho as she confessed to a boy she liked. she doesn't even remember his name now but she does remember getting rejected on the school rooftop at lunch time, because kumi was there to wipe her tears and buy her yakisoba bread and strawberry milk before going back to class.

actually, maybe it wasn't lunch time. if shiho wanted yakisoba bread after getting her heart broken, kumi will make it happen even if it meant cutting classes. 

the winter of that same year, shiho gets a boyfriend. for real, this time. she doesn't like him that way but he's cute and smells nice, unlike most of the guys in her class. shiho likes having him around, for the most part. sometimes, though, he wants to hold hands too much and his palms sweat easily. 

they've been going out for a week and every time they get left alone, he kind of leans in to shiho as close as possible, and she just kind of laughs and pretends to start texting. 

"kumi!" shiho yells, barging into the sasaki residence that night, "good evening, auntie, is kumi around?" she asks mrs. sasaki who was preparing the dinner table. 

"she's upstairs with a friend. ask her to come down, will you?"

_a friend? probably just mirei or yuka._

shiho walks up a short flight of stairs and bursts into the kumi bedroom door without knocking, "kumi, i got a prob—"

when the door is gaped open, she sees kumi in bed, her laptop playing a familiar theme song, and another girl resting on kumi's chest. 

"shiho? what are you doing here?"

shiho blinks for a moment.

a very long moment.

the theme song stops playing but her blinking still does not.

"kumi-senpai, who is she?" the girl asks, lifting her head up that was. leaning. on. kumi. she's probably just some skank bitch trying to suck up to kumi for whatever reason, and shiho could tell she made her voice an octave higher while trying to get kumi's attention.  _burikko bullshit_ _._ she hates her, shiho decides at that moment. she's only met her now but she hates her.

she hears the laptop close and looks back at kumi before she pierced daggers in the poor girl's face with her glare. "you're watching star wars without me?"

"well... you were out on a date and we've seen this together before so..." kumi excuses, composing her posture and scoots a tad bit away from the girl, as if it'll help the current situation. "this is suzuka, by the way. she's a new recruit for the softball team."

"nice to meet y—"

"dinner is ready, your mom asked me to come get you." shiho says before slamming the door shut and sprinting down the steps. she bumps into mrs. sasaki while trying to get to the main door to leave.

"you're not staying for dinner, shiho?"

"not today, ma'am."

/

**_kumi (9:20pm):_** we had gyoza for dinner

**_kumi (9:20pm):_** i saved some for you

**_kumi (9:37pm):_** i gave it to your mom, it's in a blue tupperware in your fridge

_**shiho (12:02am):**_ [sent a photo] it's good

_**kumi (12:02am):**_ i helped wrap it :">

_**kumi (12:02am):**_ we watched the last jedi

_**kumi (12:03am):**_ suzuka didnt like it

_**shiho (12:03am):**_ tasteless bitch

_**kumi (12:03am):**_ language 

_**shiho (12:03am):**_ treehouse in 5?

/

there's a treehouse in the katō backyard that shiho's dad built after spending three months in america for work, and he grew to admire their obnoxiously large impractical lawns and white picket fences. thankfully, he didn't get the idea to build a fence around his house so kumi doesn't have to cirque de soleil her way in sneaking into shiho's place.

it takes kumi three minutes to arrive with her hair in a bun, wearing a tanktop, shorts and flip flops, finding shiho staring at the stars, clutching a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"hey," kumi says, quietly, heaving and trying to catch her breath as climbs up the ladder. shiho assists and gives her some leverage as she pulls her up.

"that was fast, did you run the whole way here?" 

she dusts herself off, snatches one end of the blanket and snuggles close to shiho, "of course, i did." kumi pauses, "are you mad at me?"

shiho looks away, "no."

kumi hums, as loud as the crickets and no one talks for a good ten minutes. shiho just stares at the frogs leaping on a nearby pond that is visible from here. and then, "did you have fun?"

"what?"

"on your date, i mean."

"oh," shiho says, "yeah, i guess."

"does it have anything to do with the problem you were gonna ask me to help you with?"

"yeah, before i caught you in bed with another girl."

kumi laughs, "you make it sound so morbid."

"i think he wants to kiss me." shiho blurts out, facing kumi now, and she's had boys sending her their bad poetry before, shiho never had a clue what they mean when they say she's  _prettier than all the stars combined_ —until she sees the way the light hits kumi's eyes made her orbs glisten that it almost seems like they're twinkling, and when shiho looks back up to the sky to compare—she feels like she understands what they meant.

"do you want to kiss him?"

"i don't know, i've never kissed anyone before."

"are you serious?"

"why is that surprising? you would've been the first one to know about it."

kumi hums, settling in the silence that soon accompanied them. sharing the same tiny blanket, it's hard for shiho to not take a whiff of kumi's head. she never noticed how her hair smells like peaches before, "did you change your shampoo?" 

"nope."

"does  _ suzuka _ use peach shampoo?" shiho hisses, and allowing herself to roll her eyes because kumi is busy looking at the sky anyway.

"how the hell would i know?" kumi asks, before leaning her head on shiho's shoulder. "i use peach shampoo, though. you never noticed?" 

she shakes her head, scooting a teeny bit down to a squat position. kumi is  _tall_ tall, leaning on a short girl's shoulder probably isn't all too comfortable. shiho feels the other girl's cheek directly in contact against her skin that she can tell the exact moment a smile forms on the corner of kumi's lips, "shiho?"

"hm?"

"you're jealous."

"are you crazy?" shiho guffaws, like it's the most ridiculous thought in the history of the universe, and turns to look at kumi so fast she almost breaks her neck, "why in the  _world_ would i be jealous??? _you're_ the one who's jealous!" she accuses, jokingly, as a form of denial or maybe coping mechanism. but then, 

"i am." kumi whispers, but loud enough for shiho to hear, head still nestled on the space where shiho's neck meets her collarbone, "not that i was trying to hide it."

shiho pictures the final second before a bat swing, 150 grams of spinning force about to catapult in her face, and sure it's made of rubber, but a rubber ball coming in a 100 kilometers per hour is still a projectile. she sees a vivid image of the pitcher's stance, face just about to contort into a grimace when they realise it's about to hit someone's head. shiho can choose to do one of two things: acknowledge the ball and try to hit it. she knows it's not gonna end well, she can almost feel it against her face. 

or, she can get a concussion.

"jealous of what?"

"your boyfriend," kumi admits, abashedly. her face turns bright red in a matter of seconds, burying her face deeper in her part of the blanket that she rolled into a ball.

"why would you be jealous of him?" shiho asks, and she feels? flattered? relieved? happy? she's not really sure. 

" _because._ you barely spend time with me anymore. is it silly? it's silly, isn't it. i knew it. i'm so weird."

"no! it's not silly at all..." shiho drones on, "i.. i was jealous, too."

"please, like i'm gonna replace my best friend with someone who hates star wars."

"pinky promise?"

"we're in high school, shiho."

there was something in that gyōza, shiho reckons, like some kind of aphrodisiac, because kumi embarrassed is all kinds of cute, until she starts to bite her lip, and then it's anybody's guess. 

shiho is not proud of what happens next, or at least convinces herself that it was a normal thing to do. 

kumi's lips taste like strawberry when they kiss, but with a peppermint aftertaste that shiho does not hate, at all. they're both  _ terrible _ at kissing, shiho doesn't know where to put her hands and kumi's palms are just clenched around the hem of her tanktop, as if pulling it down, which shiho cannot argue with because it feels like she's floating. her baseball concussion lead to her being given pain meds, and shiho never understood addiction, or at least never empathized with it. she's strong-willed enough to stop whatever it is she needs to stop. but kumi is tugging down on her lips, with her lips, and if she had to be addicted to one thing, it would be this. 

again,  _ terrible _ kissers. but shiho feels kumi smile against her lips so she smiles in return. it takes a second for them to pull away and suddenly the ants climbing up the tree became the most interesting thing to watch because neither of them wants to look at each other. 

"you're still using flavored toothpaste at that age?" she snickers, trying to get her attention away from the taste of strawberry that is still very much present in her mouth.

"at least i brushed my teeth. you taste exactly like gyōza." kumi bites back and shiho is  _ mortified . _

they laugh about it for the rest of the night. when papa katō wakes them up for breakfast, he asks why shiho hasn't touched the fruit bowl when it's supposedly her favorite thing, and kumi answers for her, "she's had her fill of strawberries last night, sir."

kumi seems to have no problem about it the day after, just nonchalantly joking about it on the dining table in front of shiho's entire family, but something clicked in shiho's head. she couldn't put her finger on what exactly was it until she finally let her boyfriend kiss her, only to feel disappointed that he doesn't taste like any fruit at all.

shiho tried. she really did. she fed him strawberries and colgate, for fuck's sake. what was so different now that she's so repulsed by it? 

kumi's lips are pillowy, for starters. and soft, and not chapped at all, and there was a slight tremor in her hands that shiho found quite endearing and that she looked like she was so afraid to touch shiho, and kumi is gentle, so gentl—

everyone, at some point, used to practice kissing on their best friend,

right?

it's just like when someone covers a song but the original is way better. so what do you do? you keep listening to the origi—

_no,_ you find a new song to listen to. 

because the very next week, shiho finds miss-hates-star-wars suck up and kumi in an abandoned classroom,  _ practicing .  _

/

shiho drunkenly stares at a strawberry bowl in the counter of the bar as it jogs her memories. her world is spinning, and not just because of the tequila. she's getting married. in two days. to takumi. handsome, gallant, rich takumi, who always seems too busy take her calls or help her pick gifts for their registry, or let her come for once.

she remembers confessing to kumi about her soon to be orgasm-less married life, shamelessly hoping it'll end up the way they resolved her kissing dilemma in back high school. 

(was she gonna ask kumi to help? of course not, that would be ridiculous. as ridiculous as it would be for kumi to  not at least offer her assistance.) 

kumi is always on the moral high ground anyway, and she's done her too many favors already.

besides, kumi is her first on a lot of other things. first punch in the face, first kiss, first big fight, first love, etc,. shiho can't let her first orgasm be kumi's responsibility, too. 

now with an obnoxiously shiny rock in finger, kumi won't be her first marriage either.

(it'll be fine. divorces are easy.)

as if on cue, kumi arrives, now with an open beer bottle in hand, in a dress that is too tight and too short and this is the only time shiho is thankful to have double vision from being batshit drunk. and that is bad. she's one shot away from passing out, which means she's way over her mouth lock limit.

"look who decided to party after all," shiho slurs, barely able to keep upright.

"i called someone to drive us all home. it'll be a shame to leave this party sober." kumi says, with a stupid smile on her. so stupid. shiho wants nothing but to kiss that stupid smile away. 

her vision is very much impaired but the dimmer on the lights somehow accentuates the shape of kumi's lips from this distance. or maybe shiho is just looking at them directly, who knows at this point. 

she grabs strawberries from the bowl and shoves them right in front of kumi's face, "do you know how much i _love_ strawberries? THEY'RE MY FAVORITE FRUIT IN THE UNIVERSE."

"i know that," kumi replies, listening to shiho ramble as she takes a sip of beer, smiling from ear to ear.

"you wanna know when i last ate a strawberry? TEN YEARS AGO."

"hmm," she hums, and somehow kumi's beer bottle disappeared and is now focused on making sure shiho's face doesn't hit the floor. kumi is so good, and nice, and takes care of shiho when no one else wants to. 

"do you wanna know why i stopped eating strawberries?" 

"because your local grocery stopped importing the good ones from tochigi?"

shiho slaps kumi's face, softly and playfully, almost like a caress, if caressing meant having sticky ass palms from grabbing a handful of fruit without the bartender's permission. 

"no!" she's yelling now, "because every time i eat a strawberry, i think of—"

a voice calls kumi from the dance floor and themere second that it took for kumi turn her head around is enough for shiho to realise what she was about to say and,  _shut the fuck up, you're getting married in two days. keep that shit to yourself._

"it's my friend, the one i called to drive us home, wanna greet her? it's your party."

hell yeah, shiho wants to greet the person who saved her from a great deal of doom.

kumi waves her hands up so the person knows where to go and maybe it's just the magnificent dimmers but that face looks so much like a face she wants to hit. 

fuck, not her. 

"kumi!"

"hey, suzuka. sorry for the trouble."

shiho notes the lack of honorifics and senses some tension starting to form. 

apparently, an entire bottle of tequila was  not enough to get through today. shiho wonders if she can sneak three bottles inside her puffy ass wedding dress that she can drink through a tube during the ceremony. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well


End file.
